Zachari Turgeon is a Principal Scientist leading the Microbial Research and Innovation group at Renaissance BioScience in Vancouver, BC, where he is also a founding employee. With over 15 years of experience in industrial biotechnology, he directs research in yeast engineering, microbial bioprospecting, and metabolic pathway design to create sustainable, high-value biotechnologies.

Since helping establish Renaissance in 2013, Zachari has guided multidisciplinary teams from early-stage research through to commercial-scale implementation. His work has contributed to globally marketed yeast-based solutions spanning food and beverage fermentation, flavor and aroma enhancement, and food safety. Among these, he helped develop a patented acrylamide-reducing yeast technology now deployed internationally.

A strong advocate for innovation-driven collaboration, Zachari plays a key role in defining R&D strategy, managing academic and industrial partnerships, and integrating classical genetics, evolutionary approaches, and synthetic biology to advance microbial platform development. He holds a Master of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Guelph.